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Newsletter
No. 1
November 24, 2006
Severe health problems associated with the U.S.
military’s use of chemical defoliants during the Vietnam War have
long been an issue of concern for the veteran’s community. These
chemical weapons, popularly known as Agent Orange, were heavily
contaminated with dioxin, TCDD, one of the most deadly cancer
causing carcinogens known to man.
Over many years, Vietnam veterans who began to get sick, have
birth defected children and often died, have struggled to have
the Veterans Administration provide testing, treatment and compensation
for those affected.
 American
veterans delegation (l-r) David Cline, Ralph Steele, Joan Duffy,
Frank Corcoran and Dan Shea behind “Mrs. Vietnam 2005”, Doan
Thi Kim Hong, performing songs for Agent Orange affected children
at hospice near Cu Chi.
This struggle began in the 1970’s and went through many twists
and turns as the companies who manufactured these chemical weapons
and the US government who ordered and deployed them, tried to
deny any responsibility and even claimed that they were harmless.
Eventually in 1984, the chemical companies who manufactured Agent
Orange agreed to pay $180 million in damages to veterans and finally
Congress passed the Agent Orange Act of 1991recognizing the negative
health effects of these defoliants and acknowledging certain conditions
for VA medical treatment and disability compensation..
Since that time, more conditions have been acknowledged but many
others are still not recognized.
There have been lawsuits also from veterans who served in the
South Korean, Australian and New Zealand militaries under the
US command.
But one group, the largest number affected, who have never received
any form of Justice have been the people of Vietnam, both NVA/VC
and ARVN soldiers and many times more civilians who were trapped
in the war zones.
In 2004, the suffering Vietnamese formed the Vietnam Association
of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) and initiated a lawsuit
in the US courts against the companies who manufactured these
poisonous chemical weapons. That case is schedule to be heard
in a federal appealate court in NYC this fall.
In support of the Vietnamese victims, we have formed the Vietnam
Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign and are working
with them and other Agent Orange victims throughout the world
to continue this struggle until all those affected receive some
Justice.
At the end of March, I lead a delegation of four other US veterans
who are Agent Orange victims, Joan Duffy, Ralph Steele, Dan Shea
and Frank Corcoran, to Hanoi for an International Conference on
AO, that included participates from Australia, South Korea, New
Zealand, Canada as well as support groups from France, England
and several other European countries.
After that we travelled to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Cu Chi and
Hue were we were hosted by VAVA chapters and met with victims
and visited hospices and friendship villages where some of the
many thousands of the most seriously deformed AO children are
cared for, some run by international veterans support, religious
organizations or local governments and hospitals.
This issue is an ongoing and unresolved legacy of the US war in
Vietnam and is something that needs to be addressed and resolved
if we are even going to heal the wounds of that period in our
nation’s history.
To find out more about and get involved in the campaign here in
the United States, contact the:
VIETNAM AGENT ORANGE RELIEF & RESPONSIBILITY CAMPAIGN
P.O. BOX 303, Prince Station,
New York, NY 10012
or visit the web site at www.vn-agentorange.org
 U.S.
Air Force Nurse Joan Duffy addresses International Conference
in Vietnam in March 2006. Joan died on Nov. 17, 2006 from Agent
Orange related cancer. RIP
Speech given by
Joan (Newberry) Duffy to the International Conference of Victims
of Agent Orange/dioxin held in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 28-29,
2006.
Today, I will be speaking to you about one of the most devastating
materials that the United States military ever used: I am, of
course, referring to Agent Orange which contained the highly toxic
contaminant, dioxin. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam produced
unacceptable threats to life, violated international law, and
created toxic wastelands that continued to kill and injure civilian
populations long after the war was over. Agent Orange was a true
weapon of mass destruction and its use should be considered a
crime against humanity.
Before I begin my presentation, I would like to tell you a little
bit about myself.... I was commissioned a 2/LT in the United States
Air Force Nurse Corps shortly after graduating from college. I
was sent to a large military base called Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam
a year later. While there, I was too busy to notice that I never
heard a bird sing, and in fact, the only living things I remember
seeing (other than people) were roaches: not too reassuring considering
that roaches were reported to be the first things to crawl out
from under the rubble at Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atom
bombs were dropped. At the hospital where I worked, there was
a brick wall outside the emergency room that was covered in dead
vines. I learned years later that the perimeter of Cam Ranh Bay
was sprayed with Agent Orange on a regular basis because it was
considered such an important military installation. Like most
Vietnam Veterans, I knew nothing about Agent Orange until years
later when I read about veterans with health problems who had
begun to make the connection between Agent Orange exposure and
illness.
So how did this tragedy of Agent Orange begin?
During World War II, Prof Kraus, Chairman of the Department of
Botany at the University of Chicago, discovered that a chemical
named 2,4 D could kill vegetation within 24-48 hours by causing
plants to experience sudden, uncontrolled growth. Thinking this
discovery might be of some use in the war effort, Kraus contacted
the War Department, but Army scientists were not interested in
it at that time.
Civilian scientists, however, found Kraus’ discovery to be of
use in everyday life after the war.
Chemical sprays that included 2,4 D were put on the market for
use in controlling weeds in yards and along roads and railroads.
The US Army continued to experiment with 2,4 D during the 1950's
and late in the decade, they found that mixing it with another
chemical resulted in the creation of an herbicide that had an
almost immediate toxic effect on foliage. What they didn’t realize
or what they chose to ignore, was that the second chemical, 2,4,5
T, contained dioxin, a molecule that the US Environmental Protection
Agency would later call one of the most potentially dangerous
known to man. The toxicity of dioxin is such that it is capable
of killing newborn mammals and fish at levels as small as 5 parts
per trillion (or one ounce in 6 million tons). It’s toxic properties
are enhanced by the fact that it can enter the body through the
skin, the lungs, or through the mouth. Once inside the body, dioxin
rapidly binds to protein molecules in the cell membranes called
receptors: the job of these receptors is to move substances into
the cells. By binding with these receptors, dioxin is rapidly
transported into the cytoplasm and nucleus of the cell where it
then wreaks havoc for years to come. Dioxin literally modifies
the functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell and affects
a wide range of organ and metabolic functions. It is a potent
multi-system poison that is virtually indestructible in most environments.
One of the most dangerous characteristics is that dioxin is not
water soluble, making it almost impossible to excrete: if it were
water soluble, it could be excreted in the urine and perspiration.
However, because dioxin crosses the placental barrier, levels
of dioxin in pregnant women are reduced, sadly for the unborn
baby. In laboratory animals, dioxin has been shown to cause cancer,
birth defects and genetic damage.
Considering how toxic dioxin is, it is truly shocking that after
extremely minimal experimentation, Agent Orange and other herbicides
were shipped to Vietnam in 1961 to aid in anti guerilla efforts.
These herbicides were used to destroy food sources and eliminate
foliage that concealed enemy troop movements. On January 13, 1962,
3 United States Air Force planes left Tan Son Nhut’s airfield
to begin Operation Ranch Hand to defoliate portions of South Vietnam’s
heavily forested countryside. Nine months later, by Sept 1962,
the spraying program had intensified, resulting in the defoliation
of almost 9000 acres of mangrove forests. Over the next 9 years,
an estimated 19 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed throughout
Vietnam at a rate 6 to 25 times that suggested by the chemical
manufacturers. The results of the spraying was there for all to
see: over the door of the ready room for Ranch Hand pilots at
Tan Son Nhut’s Airport in Saigon hung a sign that said “Only you
can prevent forests”.
Unfortunately, the Agent Orange used in Vietnam was much more
highly contaminated with dioxin than that used in the United States.
This was the direct result of the US military pressuring the chemical
manufacturers to speed up production of Agent O range because
the military was using ever increasing quantities of the herbicide,
practically with abandon. In an effort to work faster and increase
production of Agent Orange, the chemical companies paid little
attention to quality control issues and the Agent Orange destined
for Vietnam became much more highly contaminated with dioxin as
the result of sloppy, hasty manufacturing.
Unknown to the millions of American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians
being exposed to the herbicides, the chemical manufacturers were
well aware of the long term toxic effects, but they sought to
suppress the information from the government and the public, fearing
a negative backlash. Of particular concern to the chemical companies
was Agent Orange which contained dioxin. Publicly they maintained
that dioxin occurred naturally in the environment and was not
harmful to humans.
Privately they knew otherwise, as evidenced by scientists involved
in Operation Ranch Hand and documents uncovered recently in the
US National Archives which paint a disturbing picture. There are
strong indications that not only were the military officials aware
as early as 1967 of the limited efficacy of chemical defoliation,
they also knew of the potential long term health risks of frequent
spraying and they sought to keep that information from the public.
Dr, James Clary was an Air Force scientist in Vietnam who helped
to write the history of Operation Ranch Hand. Clary wrote in a
1988 letter to a member of congress investigating Agent Orange
that
"we were aware of the potential for damage due to dioxin
contamination in Agent Orange. We were even aware that the military
formulation had a higher dioxin concentration than the civilian
version due to the speed of manufacture . However because the
material was to be used on the enemy, none of us were overly
concerned. We never considered a scenario in which our own personnel
would become contaminated with the herbicide."
While the debate over the danger of Agent Orange and dioxin heated
up in scientific circles, the United States Air Force continued
flying defoliation sorties. People on the ground continued to
live in a mist of toxic herbicides. They slept with it, drank
it in their water, ate it in their food, breathed it in their
lungs, absorbed it through their skin. Some of the US troops used
the empty Agent Orange drums as barbeques: others stored food
in them. Still others rigged the residue- laden drums for showers.
Finally in 1971, the US Surgeon General prohibited the use of
Agent Orange for home use and on June 30, 1971, all US defoliation
efforts in Vietnam were terminated.
As veterans attempted to settle back into civilian life, some
of them began to develop unusual health problems. There were skin
and liver diseases and what appeared to be an abnormal number
of cancers to soft tissue organs such as the lungs and stomach.
There also seemed to be an unusually high number of birth defects
among children born to Vietnam Veterans. Some veterans experienced
wild mood swings while others developed a painful skin condition
called cloracne. Many of these veterans were found to have high
levels of dioxin in their blood., but scientists, doctors and
the United States government insisted that there was no link between
their illnesses and their exposure to Agent Orange.
By the early 1980's, the denials of the US Government, the Veterans
Administration, the US military and the chemical companies regarding
Agent Orange/dioxin toxicity began to fall apart as communities
such as Times Beach, Missouri entered the public eye. Times Beach,
Missouri was an idyllic little community about 20 miles from St
Louis. Unknown to the residents of Times Beach, dioxin-laced oil
had been sprayed on the town’s roads to keep the dust down during
the 1970s. The contamination was so bad that the government decided
that the only way to save the town’s residents from further damage
was to buy them out and move them out. In early 1983, the US government
spent $33 million buying the homes and businesses in Times Beach
and relocating its 2200 residents. Three years later, in 1986,
the Centers for Disease Control released a report that showed
that mobile home residents located near Times Beach, were suffering
liver and immune system damage as a result of their exposure to
the dioxin-laced oil that had been sprayed on the dirt roads in
1971. Times Beach remains a ghost town even today because of dioxin
contamination. Other towns and cities became contaminated as a
result of chemical spills or manufacturing emissions: some of
them needed to be evacuated like Times Beach. Love Canal in Niagra
Falls, New York, Sevesco, Italy, Pensacola, Florida, and the entire
city of Midland, Michigan have very high levels of dioxin. While
the government was paying off residents of Times Beach because
of dioxin contamination, it continued to deny that Vietnam Veterans
who had been exposed to Agent Orange and dioxin were at risk.
All in all, many entities conspired to keep the truth about Agent
Orange and dioxin covered up: the Centers for Disease Control,
scientists, chemical companies, The White House, the Veterans
Administration, the US military, especially the United States
Air Force. In the end, the truth won out. The Veterans Administration
has been forced to admit that Agent Orange exposure/dioxin exposure
causes a multitude of health problems for which they must compensate
veterans. These conditions include: cancers such as leukemia,
soft tissue sarcoma, cancers of the lung, larynx, bronchus, trachea,
prostate, lymphomas, myeloma, Hodgkins and non Hodgkins lymphoma.
Other conditions for which veterans are compensated are: nervous
system disorders such as neuropathy and sensory impairment, metabolic
disorders such as Type II diabetes, liver and kidney damage, skin
problems such as cloracne, The Veterans Administration also must
compensate veterans’ children who suffer from mutations and birth
defects such as spina bifida and other neural tube defects, cleft
palates, hydrocephalus, esophageal and intestinal deformities,
clubfoot, fused fingers and toes, and congenital heart disease.
Agent Orange is NOT a conventional weapon: it is, instead, a
weapon of mass destruction. All international law on warfare for
the past 100 years has attempted to limit violence to combatants
and to prevent the use of cruel and unfocused weapons. International
agreements and conventions have tried to protect civilians and
non-combatants from the scourge of war, to outlaw the destruction
of the environment and to protect the food supply in order to
safeguard life on this earth. Agent Orange is precisely the kind
of weapon prohibited by international law for more than a century
because of its unconfined, death-dealing effects.
Surely it must be clear to any thinking human being that we can
no longer afford to seek violent solutions to the world’s problems
because our weapons have become so dangerous and toxic that they
kill soldiers and civilians both during the war and for years
and years after the war is supposedly over. I urge you as fellow
human beings to seek justice for the victims of Agent Orange.
I implore you to do this for the sake of Vietnam’s children and
grandchildren, but also for the sake of the world’s children and
grandchildren. What we do now, here, to seek justice for the victims
of Agent Orange could very well establish an international precedent
that will hold governments and corporations responsible and accountable
for their actions and protect future generations from the horror
of such weapons.
 Some
of the children being cared for at Cu Chi facility run by the
Catholic Church. These children are a continuing legacy of the
use of chemical weapons by the U.S.
Speech given by David
Cline to the International Conference of Agent Orange Victims.
First let me thank the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent
Orange/Dioxin for organizing this international conference and
to the Agent Orange Vets from Korea, Australia, New Zealand and
Canada who have traveled here to participate.
The US delegation I am leading is made up of Agent Orange vets
Frank Corcoran, Joan Duffy, Ralph Steele and Dan Shea.
I was an infantryman with the 25th Infantry Division in Cu Chi
and Tay Ninh in 1967 and was wounded 3 times but do not suffer
from dioxin related health conditions myself.
When I came back from the war, I had knowledge of the use of Agent
Orange from having seen sprayed areas and knew that they destroyed
nature, but had no knowledge of the negative effects these defoliants
had on human beings.
I remember in 1969 a veteran I knew named Jeff Sharlett died of
cancer at age 27 in the Miami, Florida Veterans Hospital and thinking
it was strange that someone so young had cancer.
Over the years other friends of mine got sick or had deformed
children or sometimes died. Mike Keegan and John Miffin who died
and John and Rena Kopystenski who had several children with birth
defects are among them. So this issue has always been personal
to me.
In 1977, a woman who worked as a claims representative at the
Chicago Veterans Administration named Maude DeVictor was the first
person to really put two and two together when she witnessed the
VA higher-ups denying veterans claims and covering up their health
problems and the connections to dixon exposure.
The next year, 1978, a veteran named Paul Reutershan who was sick
with cancer got on television and said "my government killed
me in Vietnam and I didn't even know it". He began a lawsuit
against the chemical companies who manufactured Agent Orange,
Blue, White, Purple etc. but he never lived to see that lawsuit
completed because he died within the year.
The reason that this lawsuit was started was because the VA was
denying veterans claims for medical treatment and compensation
and according to US law (the Feres Doctrine), former military
personell cannot sue the government for these type of claims.
From 1978-1984 the lawsuit continued and was eventually settled,
although many veterans opposed the settlement, for 180 million
dollars. Sadly many veterans got very little of that money since
the army of lawyers who got involved got a good portion of it
in legal fees.
I have been a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War since
1970 and that organization played a critical role in launching
the movement for justice for Agent Orange vets, supporting Maude
Devictor who became the godmother of the movement, recruiting
veterans to joining the lawsuit and raising general public awareness
of this issue.
But we always believed that while the chemical companies had responsibility
and should be held liable, the primary responsibility lay with
the US government which ordered and continued to use these poisons
after they were aware of the negative effects on people. Instead
of changing course, they covered up the facts and kept using them
until 1971. After that they gave their remaining supplies to the
former Army of the Republic of Vietnam who continued to use them
until 1975 when that regime ceased to exist.
In VVAW, our demand has always been Testing, Treatment and Compensation
for Agent Orange Victims. We never thought the lawsuit against
the chemical companies was the answer, but rather a way to continue
putting pressure on the US government.
Finally progress was made on that front when in 1991, Congress
passed the Agent Orange Act, acknowledging several conditions
as being dioxin related for purposes of medical treatment and
disability compensation. It also established a mechanism for the
National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine to review
new studies and make recommendations to the Secretary of the Veterans
Administration for expanding the recognized conditions.
Currently there are thirteen conditions acknowledged by the VA
including two conditions among veterans children but over 27 conditions
have been rejected since there was a finding by the IOM of not
enough scientific research to indicate a connection to dioxin
exposure.
So many veterans are still not being treated with any fairness.
And how does someone give justice to all those who have died?
The hidden casualties of the Vietnam War continue to grow but
the struggle continues as well.
And today we need to talk about the other side of the coin, not
just American, Korean, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian veterans
but the people of Vietnam as well.
Remember also that these chemicals were also used in parts of
Cambodia and Laos as well as along the DMZ in Korea and in Panama.
In the United States we began the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief
& Responsibility campaign to support the efforts of VAVA and
join with concerned veterans and people, in the U.S. and other
countries to demand Justice for ALL Agent Orange Victims!
While the Campaign is sponsored by Veterans For Peace, it is made
up of war veterans, Vietnamese-Americans, peace and labor activists,
environmentalists and other friends of Vietnam. We are supporting
the international petition drive in support of the VAVA lawsuit
and recently sponsored a 10 city speaking tour by 4 VAVA members.
We are also planning to encourage sympathetic representatives
and senators to introduce legislation in Congress for the US government
to step up to the plate and provide compensation and medical assistance,
if not for political reasons, then for moral and humanitarian
purposes. It is time to really heal the wounds of that war, not
to ignore them or let them fade into history.
Let me make on last point. This is a struggle to expose and end
the use of chemical weapons by all nations but especially by my
government. This is not just about something that happened over
30 years ago. Today the Bush administration has led our country
into another war, this time in Iraq and has used Depleted Uranium
weapons that will poison US troops and Iraqi citizens. They have
also used White Phosphorous bombs against whole cities like Fallujah.
It is time for humanity to demand an end to these weapons as part
of our efforts to abolish war. That is what Veterans For Peace
is pledged to work for. That will only come through the determined
efforts of all of us, throughout the world.
The great American abolitionist Fredrick Douglass once said:
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those
who profess to favor freedom yet depreciate agitation, are men
who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain
without the thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without
the awful roar of its many waters.This struggle may be a moral
one, or it may be a physical one, but it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it
never will"
With that as our watchword, lets make this conference a call
to all the people of the world. JUSTICE FOR ALL AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS!
FINAL APPEAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE OF VICTIMS OF AGENT ORANGE/DIOXIN
We victims of Agent Orange/dioxin and other toxic chemicals,
together with supporters and scientists from the United States,
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand,
Russia, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, and Vietnam participating
in the International Conference on Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin
held in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 28th and 29th 2006, make the following
appeal to the international community:
We have discussed the effects of Agent Orange contaminated with
dioxin and other toxic chemicals on human life and health, and
the sufferings of those affected. Based on this
exchange of views, we unanimously confirm the following:
- During the war waged
in Vietnam, the US chemical companies manufactured and supplied
millions of liters of toxic chemicals disguised as defoliants
or herbicides. Those chemicals contained high levels of dioxin.
They were an utterly lethal substance.
- Those toxic chemicals
destroyed the environment, millions of acres of forests, leading
to an imbalanced ecology, great loss of timber resources and
the disappearance of several animal species as well as precious
forest vegetation. As a consequence, natural disasters such
as flood, erosion and drought have become more common and impacted
severely on agriculture, the main source of subsistence for
South Vietnamese residents.
- However, the worst
effect of those toxic chemicals is the harm to human life and
health of those exposed to them. Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin
and other toxic chemicals consist of:
a- Millions of Vietnamese living in their homes and members
of the liberation armed forces, and those working for the former
Saigon regime and armed forces, an ally of the US at that time.
b- Various investigations and scientific studies (frequently
with participation of foreign and American scientists) have
demonstrated that Vietnamese victims have suffered a variety
of serious diseases – even far more and worse than the dioxin-related
diseases listed by the US National Academy of Sciences Institute
of Medicine between 1994 and 1995. In addition, many female
victims have experienced reproductive problems. Many of them
have been deprived of the ability to bear children and to experience
the joy of being a mother.
c- The most painful effect, however, is that Agent Orange/dioxin
has already harmed the next generation of children and will
do the same to the following ones. Many children have been born
without the experience of war but have deformed bodies and can
never enjoy the simplest experience of happiness – that is to
live as an ordinary human being
For the above-said reasons, victims of Agent Orange/dioxin and
their families are among the poorest and most unhappy of the society.
Many thousands of victims have died without justice for themselves
and their families.
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